Posted by med_empowered on October 10, 2005, at 9:53:43
In reply to Re: Agitated depression Phillipa, posted by Phillipa on October 9, 2005, at 23:18:12
hey! I haven't really heard that diagnosis being used much anymore--I've seen it a lot in literature from the 60s and 70s, though (that's what they used the old neuroleptic+antidepressant combos for). Anyway, one recent article I did read on it suggests that "agitated depression" should be re-conceptualized as a sort of bipolar "mixed-state". Since bipolar disorder is now seen as producing "mixed-states" and "dysphoric mania" as well as the more classical euphoric mania and pure depression, this makes sense. Apparently, lots of people who meet the criteria for "agitated depression" also meet the criteria for bipolar II disorder, and sometimes variants of bipolar I or bipolar NOS. Plus, agitated depression can often be complicated by psychosis, and whenever you have depression with psychotic symptoms (especially in younger patients), the likelihood that the person currently has, or will develop, a form of bipolar disorder is pretty big. I was actually told by one doc that certain mood episodes were "agitated depression"...and I was told by another doctors that they were "actually" mixed-episodes (I think its kind of funny how shrinks feel free telling me what I'm experiencing and feeling after talking to me for like 10minutes.) Anyway, to sum it up--agitated depression might be a sort of high-anxiety, low-grade mixed-episode that belongs in the bipolar spectrum...if psychosis is part of the picture, the likelihood that the episode is from bipolar disorder and not unipolar depressive disorder increases. In my case, my "episodes" have resulted in diagnoses ranging from bipolar II to bipolar NOS to schizophrenia to unipolar depressive disorder.
poster:med_empowered
thread:564237
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051010/msgs/565207.html